82238 - refine new sidebar tabs a bit

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Themes, enhancement)

Description

[Dan Rosen]

Modern3, when first checked in, had some nice-looking (albeit somewhat large)
sidebar panel tabs. This weekend a new set of tabs were checked in (I'll attach
a screenshot) which are basically... ugly... for lack of a better word.

By the look of them, I'm tempted to think that they're halfway between two sets
of XBL bindings and aren't permanent, but I'm filing a bug just to be sure. I
think we'd look a bit odd releasing this milestone with attractive-looking
sidebar panels replaced with funky ones :)

Comment 1

[Dan Rosen]

Attachment: [screenshot] ugly sidebar panel tabs

Comment 2

[Dan Rosen]

To put a finger on what in particular is wrong to me about these tabs:

  - There is an obvious tab-like portion, in which the twisty image and label
    appear, but then there's a pantload of visually redundant extra space
    around that area (the larger rectangular area comprising the majority of
    each tab).
  - The small tab-like portion mentioned above is very flat-looking compared
    to the rest of the otherwise "lickable" UI.

My $0.02 :)

Nominating for 0.9.1, since we had such nice tabs just a couple days ago.

Comment 3

[Joe Hewitt (gone)]

In case you didn't notice, the tabs from a couple days ago were bright purple
and didn't match the theme at all.

Por favor, don't label new theme design critiques as "regressions".  It's all
subjective, and we've gotten plenty of positive feedback for every criticism.

Given, there are aspects of the design that need to change, and they will change.

Comment 4

[rbs]

The curved-like tabs had a touch of fantasy that left a nice futuristic 
impression to the reader, compared to newly added plain rectangular versions.
Something that is a bit more classy than plain rectangles would be nice. 

Comment 5

[Dan Rosen]

Attachment: [screenshot] comparison of old tabs to new

Comment 6

[Dan Rosen]

Attachment: [screenshot] possible compromise?...

Comment 7

[Dan Rosen]

Joe: Sorry for the harsh words. I'm trying to be constructive here... So I
attached two screenshots. One is a comparison of the old look with the new, and
the other is a hacked-up version of the old look to fit into a smaller
form-factor, which seems to be the primary aim of the new ones.

By the way, I'm wondering what you mean by "bright purple" -- There's barely any
red in the old tabs, mostly blue, and the active one was dark.

Also, you had a lot more visual sense of which panel was active because of the
contrast in colors, and each tab stood out quite clearly from each other. It
seems as if the arrow "twisties" in the new tabs try to make up for that, but it
shouldn't be necessary...

I'm sure there are tons of issues with the old tabs, dealing with variable font
sizes in the presence of fixed image sizes, but I'd bet we can make this work
out in a better way than to oversimplify the images. Hope I can be of some help.

Comment 8

[doctor__j]

The "possible compromise" is pretty neat...

Comment 9

[rbs]

Hmm... which one is active? Is it "What's Related" or "Search"? No demarcation..
I am more keen to wait for a further iteration from hewitt :-) 

Comment 10

[rbs]

Also, hewitt may well come up with a new classy design altogether...

Comment 11

[Dan Rosen]

The new, classy design has landed. This is clearly fixed :)

Comment 12

[rbs]

Verified fixed.

Comment 13

[rbs]

Really a _nit_, about the fact that the 'flashing' lights are not vertically 
aligned. Perhaps they will look much nicer if they were neatly aligned somewhere 
near to the right edge. -- Again, as I said, this is really a _nit_ if you 
happen to pass by :-) I found the new classy design of the panels very nice.